"Alex, watch out!" bellowed Melodi as she fired off four rounds into the body of the giant Tidal Lion. Alex rolled out of the way just in time to avoid its massive claw, and it instead drove deep into the ground, leaving four long gashes in the earth.
Alex spun his Scal'tar and drove the blade upwards into the neck of the giant beast with a grunt. It didn't sink deep, after all, his foe was a proper Rank-Two beast, but it still inflicted enough damage to make the Tidal Lion recoil in pain.
Alex dashed away and raised his Scal'tar, "Duet, Verse 1, Horizon of Fire!" Twelve fireballs roared to life in a horizontal line before Alex. With a swing of his Scal'tar, they were sent flying into various parts of the Tidal Lion. Great spouts of steam rose from the body of the Zight-beast as the attacks landed, and it roared angrily as it suppressed its pain.
The beast was a water element, and most of its body was comprised of liquid that could become solid at will. Alex had known that his attack wouldn't be quite as effective, but he wasn't fighting alone, and that made all the difference.
Melodi followed up his attack by firing off several enchanted arrows. Three of the four were laced with the Rank-Two spell, ‘Stalalgtite.’ While the final one carried the spell, ‘Frostbolt.’ The first of the three arrows pierced the Tidal Lion's left eye, while the second two, Stalagtite arrows, found their homes in its jaw and throat as it reared back.
The final arrow carrying the Frostbolt drove deep into the wound caused by the first arrow, and as it exploded, the entire body of the beast froze solid. The beast's body shook, and at its core, a whirlpool of water could be seen swirling about, unfreezing the body parts it spread to.
Alex took his chance. With a mighty roar, and while using 60% of his Zight, he unleashed a heavy blow onto the front right leg of the Tidal Lion. The limb shattered as it broke free, and the beast fell over onto its side. More bits of its mane and lower jaw crashed against the ground as it collapsed, but Alex wasn't done yet.
Using a burst of fire from the soles of his feet, he leapt up and launched himself downwards towards the still-frozen head of the Tidal Lion. Melodi assisted by firing a massive bolt of Zight from her bow. It was mixed with the earth element, and as it flew through the air, it shed stones and pebbles before finding its mark.
Both attacks landed at the same time. Melodi's bolt shot through the head of the Tidal Lion, right between its eyes, sending cracks all through its still-frozen head. Alex's attack drove deep into the ear of the Zightbeast and the cracks his attack made met up with those of Melodi's, and together, the stress was too much for the beast to handle.
Its entire head shattered like glass and water poured lifelessly out of its neck as the rest of its body began to soak into the ground. Somehow, they had managed to slay this mighty creature.
It had been like this every day since they first arrived in the land of Farnor. Melodi and Alex had awoken in the middle of a dense forest, only to find that they were about to become a meal for a small convocation of Rank-Two Stormwind Eagles. Those enemies had been tough to defeat, but they were all slain. Well, all of them except for the leader, who managed to fly away before it could be killed.
After that incident, the two of them struggled to survive in the wilderness of this strange land. It had been an entire week before they had found their first human settlement. They had stumbled across the small village of Gawol, and the residents there had fed them and informed them of their current location in Farnor. In exchange, Alex and Melodi had stuck around for another few days to help fend off an encroaching family of bears.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Those beasts had been mortal bears and posed no real threat to the two Conductors, but the villagers had been hard-pressed to fight them off as each one had been eight feet tall. However, one of the biggest bears had been close to becoming a Rank-One Zightbeast.
If another few weeks had passed, the village would have been destroyed by an entire pack of newly created Zightbeasts. However, with the pack slain, that threat was no longer an issue. Alex and Melodi had then stocked up on a few supplies and returned to the wilderness searching for an actual city.
They had received a map leading to a town called Ardua, and on their way, they had been assaulted by a small pride of four Tidal Lions. The first four had been in the First Rank and were tough opponents, but they hadn't faced any trouble until the fifth lion, the alpha, appeared. Their battle had then lasted for more than an hour as they fought to kill the beast, and finally, they could breathe easy.
With their Zight nearly depleted, they then decided to make camp for the evening and start again at sunrise.
"Do you think Cypher is doing alright?" asked Melodi once the fire was lit and their meal was cooking in a pot hung over the fire.
"I don't think we have to worry about Cyph', you know as well as I do that he can handle himself perfectly well. Still, if he found himself as far from home as we did, he might be in a bit of trouble nonetheless. I only hope he didn't stumble into more trouble than he can handle," replied Alex.
Melodi sighed and rolled over to her back upon her bedroll. She stared up at the stars and gave thought to the days spent in Cypher's home. She missed him, but more than anything, she worried that he might be hurt or in danger.
She wasn't naive, but she still worried about him. He was the most promising Conductor she had ever met so far, and he had skills that even she knew would be enough to survive in the wilds of this strange country. But one could never be sure. Zightbeasts of various ranks roamed the wilderness outside of human settlements, and all it would take is one bad-luck encounter for his life to be lost.
She shook her head and pushed out the intrusive thoughts just as she had several times before. Worrying about him constantly wouldn't help anything, but she still couldn't help herself when it came to Cypher.
Of course, despite his words, Alex was also worried about his friend. He remembered the last thing before waking up in the forest was the blinding light after Aylynah's attack and then darkness. He wondered if Cypher had been captured by those hooded goons, but remained optimistic that his friend had also been transported away.
For now, all they could do was make their way towards Ardua and hope that it held a Slingate so that they could return home to Dellorim. He worried about his father and was eager to return home and help finish out the harvest season.
However, worrying about those things now would only put him in more danger than was necessary. In the wilderness like this, he needed to keep his wits about him. There was no telling when another attack might come.
With their meal done cooking, the two ate in silence and stared up at the stars. It was easy to tell that they were worried about their lost companion as they ate in silence. Still, the two were resolved to meet with him again one day soon, and to achieve that, they first had to survive this trial and return home.
Ardua was the closest large city in Farnor from their current position. If anything, like the cities back home, a Slingate likely stood waiting to ferry them to their destination instantly. Their strategy was quite simple, to be honest, and even if Cypher didn't know where they were, it was likely that he would employ a similar idea.
All they could do now was hope and pray that things would turn out for the best. After their meal, each of them took a turn with the Architect's Draft and improved their mental space. It wouldn't do for them to grow lax in their training even if they were lost in a foreign land. In fact, it was all the more prudent that they do so.
Luckily for them, they could take turns reading the diagram and guarding the other, and thanks to a few particular scrolls, they could deploy a protective barrier around their encampment. The night dragged on and soon, Melodi had fallen asleep while Alex stood guard. His shift would end in another three hours, and Melodi would then take over.
However, right now, under the light of the glittering stars, Alex was quite content with his lot in life. His power had seen marked improvements since the incident with that terrifying Vampire Lord. Fear had a funny way of pushing one to even greater heights if they were able to overcome that feeling.
"Hang on Cyph'," said Alex under his breath. "We'll find you soon enough!"